Method and apparatus for generating high resolution CCD camera images

• US 5,251,037 A
• Filed: 02/18/1992
• Issued: 10/05/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: L-3 Communications Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hughes Training, Inc.
• Inventors: Busenberg, Stavros N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mancuso, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Colaianni, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US07/838,611
• Time in Patent Office: 595 Days
• Field of Search: 358/213.28, 382/1, 354/65
• US Class Current: 348/147
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/02 Picture taking arrangements specially adapted for photogrammetry or photographic surveying, e.g. controlling overlapping of pictures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof

Abstract

A method and system for generating high resolution photogrammetric images from a CCD camera. The method of the invention includes the steps of a) acquiring sequential images of terrain from a moving vehicle with a partially masked CCD camera having n uniformly staggered registers exposed at any given time; b) establishing the position of said vehicle; and c) processing the output of said camera to obtain a database of improved resolution data. Thus, an illustrative and more efficient system and method are provided for generating high resolution photogrammetric image data from a CCD camera.

Claims

1. A method for generating photogrammetric images including the steps of:

acquiring sequential images of terrain from a moving vehicle with a partially masked CCD camera having n uniformly staggered registers exposed at any given time;

establishing the position of said vehicle;

calibrating said camera with respect to a known initial object;

initializing a resolution enhancement process; and

processing the output of said camera to obtain a database of improved resolution data, wherein each pixel of said camera provides an average intensity of F_ij as;

##EQU22## where n² is the degree of resolution enhancement, δ

s the length of a single CCD pixel projected onto the ground, and f(u,v) is the luminous intensity of the point (u,v) on the ground.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said processing step includes the step of calculating a base spline B(u) wherein B(u) is given by:

##EQU23## where n and δ

have the same meaning as in claim 1 above.

3. The invention of claim 2 wherein the processing step includes the step of interpolating the luminescent intensity f(x,y) of the terrain at position (x,y) such that:

##EQU24## where n, δ

, and f represent the same quantities as in claim 1 above, (x_i, y_i) for i=0, 1, . . . , n are specific points on the ground, B is defined by equation, and (x,y) represents an arbitrary point on the ground to obtain a system of n² linear equations for the intensities f(x_i, y_j) in terms of the average intensities;

##EQU25## with the coefficients given by;

##EQU26##

4. The invention of claim 3 including the step of using the initialization procedure to obtain values of the first 2n+1 intensities.

5. The invention of claim 4 including the step of calculating the subsequent intensities to obtain n² intensity values.

6. The invention of claim 5 including the step of calculating a next set of n² intensity values to provide an enhanced resolution intensity at any point (x,y) by using the spline interpolation S(x,y).

7. A method for generating photogrammetric images including the steps of:

acquiring sequential images of terrain from a moving vehicle with a partially masked CCD camera having n uniformly staggered registers exposed at any given time;

establishing the position of said vehicle; and

processing the output of said camera to obtain a database of improved resolution data, wherein each pixel of said camera provides an average intensity F_ij as;

##EQU27## where n² is the degree of resolution enhancement, δ

is the length of a single CCD pixel projected onto the ground, and f(u,v) is the luminous intensity of the point (u,v) on the ground.